


Saving Thomas Jefferson

by AdotHann



Series: The Action in the Street: Outshine the Morning Sun [1]
Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Action Figures, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Future Fic, Gen, I know, Kid Fic, Philip's birthday, Pure shameless fluff, Super Villains, Superheroes, Thomas Jefferson has never had an emotion in his life and cant deal with this crap, birthday fic, brief appearence of grandpa washington, its cute honestly, the action in the streets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-27
Updated: 2017-06-27
Packaged: 2018-11-19 20:47:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11321430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AdotHann/pseuds/AdotHann
Summary: Its Philip Hamilton's 4th birthday and his rather unusual family will do anything to make sure its the best birthday ever. Even if it means inviting everyone else's least favourite villain as Pip's guest of honour.-feat. Philip Hamilton: actual ray of sunshine and Thomas Jefferson: the Grinch who stole Pip's birthday-A possible several-years-into-the-future look at my superhero au, The Action in the Streets. Its still cute but it probably wont make sense if you haven't read that





	Saving Thomas Jefferson

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Life, Liberty and the Persuit of Happiness](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10579821) by [AdotHann](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AdotHann/pseuds/AdotHann). 



> I have been writing this au all day. I have so much writing. I dont remember the last time i did this much writing. 
> 
> I'm going to remove this from The Action in the Streets series in a couple of days, I'm just sticking it in there so that y'all know its here. Its part of the same universe, but its not really part of the series. However, it will remain in the The Action in the Streets: Outshine the Morning Sun series because, ya kno, that's the series its for.
> 
> Anyway, enjoy!

 

 

* * *

 

"Really? Me?" Thomas says, his voice dripping with disbelief.

"I'm just as perplexed as you are." Hamilton said feelingly, "But it's what he asked for."

Thomas was on the verge of scoffing, laughing in their faces and leaving them in the dust. It wasn't like he owed them anything anymore.

The twin glares from Eliza and Jemmy were enough to make him reconsider that notion.

"I'm not even a hero," He tried weakly, "Why me?"

"Damned if I know," Eliza snapped, "No accounting for taste, clearly, but I won't have you ruining this for him."

And that was more or less the story of how The Manipulator found himself attending Philip Hamilton's 3rd birthday party.  

 

* * *

 

Pip had grown up on stories of New York's various heroes and villains; of the city that his unlikely family had broken and saved and how they'd done it. Alexander (with much help from aunt Peggy and aunt Angelica, and Theo and the Washingtons (who Pip regarded as grandparents,)) told him about the heroes daring deeds. On the rare occasion when they were consigned to babysitting duty, Aaron and Lafayette tried to even the playing field by telling him about the trials the villains faced when trying to pull off their crazy schemes.

Eliza and John (and occasionally Maria and Herc,) tried to instil some sane, civilian perspectives and failed quite spectacularly. That was rather unsurprising, considering that they had been the civilians who were insane enough to get involved with the city's menaces.

In all of their extravagant, adventurous tales, Philip's favourite character was The Manipulator. Much to Alexander's dismay, his son was only ever interested in the stories of how The Manipulator fought the Statue of Liberty, or how The Manipulator mind-whammied every lawyer (Alex and Burr included, but Theo inexplicably escaped that fate,) in the city into thinking that they were chickens for a good few hours, or any number of other bizarre and inexplicable things The Manipulator did.  
So, subtly, Alex tried to make The Manipulator seem even more villainous and isolated in each bedtime story. And Philip only became more infatuated.

Thomas had enjoyed rubbing it in Hamilton's face until, on one particularly wretched day, Hamilton had gleefully retorted that (after much probing on Alexander's part,) Philip explained that he thought that it was sad that The Manipulator always lost, and that he could do with a friend and probably a hug.

Thomas hadn't brought up the subject much after that.

"You know, mon ami," Laf said, handing him another plastic cup of - of whatever he'd brought with him (despite tasting far too alcoholic to belong at a kids party, the liquid was unidentifiable. Thomas drank it anyway,) "This might actually be good for you. Bring some life back into your cold, dead heart, no?"

"Fu- Sod off Lafayette," Thomas said, realising he was within hearing distance of little Theodosia. Angelica had practically melted at the sight of the the child, wearing the equally tiny Athena costume that Herc had made her for her 3rd birthday.

The party - though it wasn't really a party yet - had that air of suspense that all surprise parties have before they really start. It wasn't much of a party either, since Pip was barely 4 and didn't really have friends of his own yet. It was little more than a colourful and exciting excuse for everyone to get together, put aside their various differences, and celebrate something.

Being the parents, Alexander and Eliza were there, of course, and Laurens would arrive with the little monster in question any minute now. The Washingtons, who had adopted Philip as their grandson as much as Philip had adopted them as his grandparents, were also around. The rest of the list included (but was not limited to) the Burrs, the Schuler-Reynolds, whatever Lafayette and Herc had changed their last names to, Thomas, Jemmy, and the squad's total horde of 7 children and 5 dogs. Thank God they'd elected to hold the party at the Washington's mansion.

It was a grey, snow-melt, January day outside, but inside Eliza and her sisters had worked some Schuyler-brand magic and turned the house into an oasis of colour. Mostly magenta.

Thomas wondered how much Manipulator merchandise (which was here in abundance) actually got made, and if anyone other than the Laurens-Schuyler-Hamiltons bought it. Half the stuff in this room looked as if it had been handmade.  

"I wonder where they found the decorations," Laf said, as if voicing his thoughts, "It's not exactly like we have many fans."

"The sane ones are even rarer," Jemmy remarked, and Thomas took a moment to wonder when he'd joined the conversation.

"Thanks guys," Thomas said, adjusting his mask, "You're really making me feel better about this."

"No problem mon ami," Lafayette replied with a shit eating grin.

To Thomas's gratitude and mild horror, Laf came in costume as well (the full PG rated costume, thank God, not the thigh-highs and leotard that he's sported all through 2016.) Maybe it has something to do with them being Phillip's second-favourite super-person, maybe they just wanted to show off. Either way, it meant that Thomas wasn't the only person here who'd turned up out of civvies.

"Are you actually bored by all this, or are you genuinely worried about interacting with the kid?" Jemmy asked. There was no judgement in his voice, but the question was accompanied by a half-hearted feeler, seeking the actual emotions under Thomas's faced. Thomas let his mental defences, the ones that never really went away after so many years as The Manipulator, batter it away. Jemmy glared at him.

"I hate kids." Thomas said, and Jemmy glared harder, "Why couldn't the Laurens-Schuyler-Hamiltons get a nice tarantula instead?"

James looked as if he was trying to burn holes in Thomas' brain with his eyes (and Thomas tried not to laugh at the thought that he was probably aiming for the limbic system.)

"Anyway, what kind of kid idolises a super villain?" Thomas asked weakly.

As he spoke the front door swung open and in tottered little Philip Laurens-Schuyler-Hamilton, closely followed by John Lauren-Schuyler-Hamilton, who stopped dead in the door way so that John almost crashed into him. Pip looked around the room with awe, his eyes drifting across the party guests, the rather elaborate cake (from Antoinette Patisserie itself,) the superhero (and villain) themed decorations, and finally to Thomas himself.

Pip's eyes widened comically, and his jaw dropped even further. For a moment Thomas was hit with the sudden understanding that he had made a horrible mistake - he should have just taken Eliza and Jenny's wrath, it would have been so much easier than - than what? Trying to live up to whatever this kid imagined him to be? Well shit.

Thomas considered his options - he could just make a break for it, push past the kid and be out the door in seconds. He was fairly sure he could outrun a 4 year old. Or he could whammy the kid's mind, make him believe he'd never actually seen The Manipulator, it was unethical but when had Thomas ever been -

Jemmy kicked him in the back of the knee, subtly and viciously. Thomas tried to turn his grimace into a smile; he was being absurd of course, The Manipulator was an intimidating super villain who wasn't afraid of tiny children. No, Thomas though, looking at the kid who barely came up to his mid calf, nothing to worry about at all.

After a lot of initial shyness and hiding behind Laurens and Hamilton's legs, ("They've all hyphenated their last names Thomas," Jemmy remarked over his glass of something awfully alcoholic, "You're going to have to start calling them by their first names at some point."

"I really don't." Thomas replied.) Philip began talking non-stop, and Thomas realised that, biology aside, he really was Hamilton's kid.

"I'm going to show you my action figures." Philip said, and dragged Thomas towards the stairs (though it felt more like he was being dragged towards a guillotine.) Lafayette waved at him as he left, shit eating grin plastered across his face.

"You have a very impressive collection of action figures." Thomas said honestly. He was pretty sure that Pip wasn't missing a single character (he even had John Church who, despite Thomas' best efforts, had been a pretty insignificant super.)

Some of the figures looked sort of hand made. Over here, next to the regular PG Marquis, was Lafayette in their 2016 thigh-highs and suspenders, and Thomas knew they didn't actually make action figures that looked like that. Another one looked a lot like the original paint had been wiped off with nail polish remover, and it had been redecorated to look like Laurens. Thomas marvelled at the detail, and the tiny '#HonorarySuperHero' printed across the front of its hoodie.

Philip beamed at him, and handed him the Manipulator action figure. It looked like one of the original ones too, from before he'd stopped wearing the thigh-high purple leather boots. Thomas wondered if he still had those somewhere.

The Manipulator action figure looked very well loved. It was more battered and scraped than any of the others, even the superheroes. Next to it on the shelf (but not attached to it) was a tiny tag that read:

'If lost, please return to Pip Laurens-Schuyler-Hamilton,  
011646-xxx-xxx'

None of the other figurines had tags with them, like they were regularly taken outside, or like Pip was scared of loosing them. Some of them, like the Phobos figure, even had a fine coating of dust over them. Thomas felt oddly touched.

Pip noticed the shift in mood. Kids are clever like that. Thomas watched as Philip looked carefully at the figure in Thomas' hand and then, after a very long moment and with a hint of regret in his voice, said, "You can keep him if you like."

Thomas' eyebrows shot up, "I'm sorry, what?"

"You can keep him." Philip said, sounding more resolute.

Thomas stared at him in a mix of horror and awe. Clearly this child was crazy, kids were supposed to be selfish! Not - not this!

Quickly, Thomas pushed the toy back at Pip.

"Helps me when I'm sad." Pip said, "You looked sad."

Thomas watched with horror as the conversation descended into some kind of emotional insight that he really wasn't equipped to deal with.

"Um - no, I'm really alright, thanks," Thomas said awkwardly, "I actually have one. At home."

Philip seemed to accept this answer and, with clear relief, accepted his action figure back.

After that, Thomas was happy to let Pip do most of the talking. The conversation stayed light hearted, for the most part, but Thomas was beginning to think that Pip had already developed the superpower of knowing exactly what Thomas didn't want to talk about, and he was abusing that power horribly.

"Dad always insists your the villain when he tells me bedtime stories," Philip said quietly, "But Mom says stories have two sides."

Thomas winced, thinking of some of the more awful things he'd done. "Sometimes I wasn't the villain." He said carefully, "Not often but sometimes."

"Mom also says that sometimes society vi-vilifies bosses, and rich people, and Papa says you're very rich." Philip said sagely, "So I think it's society's fault."

"Your mother has some very Marxist views." Thomas said, raising an eyebrow under his mask.

"What's Marxist?"

Thomas decided it was time for a change of tactics. He picked up an action figure at random. "So who's this then?"

Philip shot him a suspicious look. "That's the Illusionist, your arch enemy," and then, "Are you sure you're really he Manipulator?"

As Thomas wracked his brain for some kind of non-terrifying proof that he was, in fact, the Manipulator (really, all he could think of now was his default "Look!! The room is suddenly full of giant tarantulas like that scene from Harry Potter, aaahhh!!!" And that wasn't exactly appropriate for young children,) Eliza called them from downstairs. Thomas couldn't make out what she was saying (too many close encounters with very loud bombs, probably,) but clearly Philip could because he shot out of the room faster than a speeding bullet.

"Mommy, the Manipulator says you're a Marxist." Pip said at top volume as he stumbled down the stairs. Alexander choked on his drink.

Eliza looked between Thomas, who was trying to look very small and doing a truly awful job of it, and Alexander who was giving him a full on death glare.

"Let's start with the gifts that auntie Angelica and auntie Maria got you," She said pleasantly.

And so Pip began opening his presents. It was quite the impressive haul for a 4 year old.

To Alexander's dismay and Thomas' amusement, Pip's favourite gift was the perfect miniature Manipulator costume that Herc had made him.

"I gave up trying to convince him to pick a superhero instead," Herc said sheepishly, "This was the only thing he seemed interested in."

Pip insisted on putting it on straight away, and Peggy took about 100 photos of him and Thomas standing next to each other in matching purple costumes. She said they'd make for brilliant black mail pics later on, though she never specified who she would be black mailing.

The Washingtons were the last ones to unveil their gift, and rightly so because they blew everyone else (apart from, perhaps, Hercules) out of the water.

George and Martha had spent the last (probably grey and rainy and downright miserable) weekend building a treehouse. It wasn't much of a treehouse; just a platform and safety railings and a pop-up tent roof, but to Pip and the other kids it looked like paradise.

"And now you have to keep coming and visiting us," George said with that self deprecating humour that all grandparents seem to have in spades.

Philip had looked confused and promised them that he'd have kept coming back anyway, but he didn't turn down the treehouse.

"A real life secret base!" Pip squealed, dragging Theo and Georges out into the half melted snow with him. "Now we can start our own superhero team!"

"The scary thing is," Lafayette said when they were out of earshot, "They probably will, some day."

"Oh god." Whispered Herc.

"I say we give them five minutes to set up base before we attack," Laf said amiably. Thomas grinned.

Philip spent his birthday living the dream; defending New York City (and his new secret base) from the Manipulator and the Marquis with his very own team of superheroes.

And, like all children's games of that kind, it had ended perfectly with Philip and his crew stopping the villains plot and managing to convince the Manipulator and the Marquis to come back to the good side. And they'd all lived happily ever after.

"Funny that," Jemmy said, "I thought you'd reformed ages ago."

"Apparently not." Thomas said and, to his surprise, found that he was still grinning. "But clearly I'm a goodie now, at any rate."

"All thanks to our friendly-neighbourhood Pip Laurens-Schuyler-Hamilton," Lafayette added. From the branches of the tree above them, Philip beamed like the summer sun.

"Do you think he's the real Manipulator?" Theodosia asked once the adults had gone back inside.

Philip's brow creased, and he eventually settled for "Dunno." Theo looked at him expectantly. Clearly this wasn't enough of an answer.

"He looks like him." Pip mused, forehead still furrowed in deep thought, "But...."

Philip suddenly remembered briefly meeting one of his parent's friends (family friends, Eliza called them, but Philip wasn't sure how he could be friends with someone he could barely remembered meeting,) who had looked and talked a lot like the Manipulator did.

"He also looks like one of Dad's friends in a costume." Pip finished lamely.

"What, Laf?" Said Theo.

Pip shook his head, "I think his name was Thomas."

Theo considered this for a minute, and then with all the sage wisdom of someone who is almost 14 days older than you and knows it well, "No, that's Laf. Thomas might be The Marquis though."

"Yeah," Pip said, clearly not trusting Theo's judgement at all, his brow still creased.

 

* * *

 

Later that night, when Thomas and Jemmy got back to their apartment, Thomas spent several hours digging through their 'meaningless shit' closet, until he found the battered cellophane box he was looking for.

He removed the small, mostly purple, plastic figure from the box and stared at it for a long moment. The he placed the Manipulator action figure by the lamp on his bedside table, where it would stay for a long, long time.

**Author's Note:**

> I recognise that real life Thomas Jefferson was a total monster who deserved to be dropkicked into hell, but I also recognise that Hamilton (an American Musical)'s Thomas Jefferson is a wonderful piece of shit who I love writing.
> 
> I also recognise that 4 year olds act nothing like Philip in this fic, but I would like you all to know that I am literally scared of young children in real life (I don't dislike them, I just fear them - much like Thomas at the start of this fic,) so I really don't know how kids act lol. Also I don't intend to re-write this to make him a more realistic kid so uh, please give me constructive criticism that I can use next time but don't expect me to re-write this :)
> 
> uhhhhh what else, oh! I have a plan for this future AU of my AU and I genuinely think that I'm going to be able to go back and write more of The Action in the Streets after this!!! I thought I was going to end up dropping that series because I just couldn't think straight, but no!! Its fine guys!! I think I've got this!!! 
> 
> (Also if you want more Action in the Streets then please support this series too because I NEED the motivation that this is going to give me.)
> 
> Also this is totally in beta'd so please send me corrections in the comments, as well as your love. Its the only thing that keeps me writing


End file.
